Jeonbuk's ACL 2 dreams shattered in Yongin | OneFootball

Sydney FC have one foot in the AFC Champions League 2 semi finals after a resounding victory over Jeonbuk Motors on Thursday night. Polish striker Patryk Klimala bagged a double to leave the Korean side with a mountain to climb next week.

Gus Poyet's ability to inspire and motivate his players to achieve the impossible will become very evident over the next week as the Uruguayan manager contemplates this 2-0 loss at home to Sydney FC. Jeonbuk were surprisingly flat for most of the match and what will surely agitate the manager will have been their inability to land a significant blow.

Sydney took the lead on the half hour thanks to the influential Patryk Klimala and the Polish man put the game - and possibly the tie - to bed with a second midway through the second period. Both finishes were of the highest quality and as Poyet admitted in the press match press conference, his side "was clearly missing something in both attack and defense." He later clarified his remarks by saying "we're not as good as you think."

Manager Gus Poyet made several changes to his side which lost in Munsu last weekend. Left back Choi Woo-jin made way for Kim Tae-hyun whilst on the other side, Kim Tae-hwan wore a different number to the one seen in the league. Further forward, only Han Kook-young, Song Min-kyu, and Andrea Compagno kept their places in the starting XV in Poyet's 4-5-1 formation.

Sydney FC's line up included a well-known K League graduate in Australian defender Alex Grant. Formerly of Pohang Steelers, Grant moved to Sydney this year after a short stint in China. The most high profile member of Sydney's squad was surely Brazilian forward Douglas Costa. Capped 31 times by his country, Costa had a very successful career in Europe lining out for Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayern Munich, and Juventus.

The temperatures dipped to six degrees following a lovely spring afternoon in the area but it always feels much colder when you're sitting in a press box high up in an empty stand surrounded by grey seats, grey tables, and a grey roof. As the game got underway. Jeonbuk's media staff distributed hot packs to the journalists present. We await the imminent arrival of the humid Korean summer when buckets of sweat materialize under your feet.

As one local writer put it, the press box population had swelled because the game was taking place in Yongin Mireu, on the outskirts of Seoul, as the pitch in Jeonju was deemed unacceptable by the AFC. Also, earlier on in the day, Ulsan HD hosted the Club World Cup trophy tour just up the road in Seongnam, and Yongin City Hall announced the creation of a new professional football club that will use Mireu Stadium from next season in the bloated K League 2. A hat-trick of commitments.

If we had hoped the match might compensate for the early March chill, we were horribly mistaken. Despite the presence of so many top class players on both sides, almost nothing happened until Patryk Klimala got on the end of a raking cross field pass from Anthony Cáceres. The Polish striker rifled the ball into the roof of the net. Song Bum-keun stood no chance in the Jeonbuk goal. Whether it was deserved or not, didn't seem to matter. We had something to write about.

Klimala came close to doubling his and Sydney's goal tally with two more chances within three minutes of his opener. Jeonbuk would repel the assault, however, and headed down the tunnel for the warmth of the dressing room trailing by just one.

Jeonbuk started the second period brightly and controlled the ball for most of the opening 20 minutes but never fashioned anything better than a couple of half chances. Their wide forwards were getting caught offside which derailed momentum. The reality was Sydney were very comfortable defending deep despite moments of promise from Jeonbuk. Poyet looked to change that with a triple substitution, which included the mercurial Lee Sung-woo.

Winger Jeon Jin-woo got involved in a strange spat with Douglas Costa when he was being substituted. Costa had a decent game and you can still see some of the old spark as he loitered behind Klimala. He hadn't taken his seat on the bench after the high-5s when Sydney put the game to bed. The impressive Klimala ran at the heart of the Jeonbuk defense and as no-one came to close him down, he struck a powerful shot into the bottom right corner from 20 yards.

The hosts away from home tried desperately to grab a goal to at least give the appearance of a competitive fixture heading into the second leg next week. They were undone by some poor decision making as passes failed to find their men in the box, or passes went to no-one. The fans behind the goal groaned in frustration as one promising attack after another disappeared.

The final whistle at least spared us from the misery of the cold. Perhaps Jeonbuk will perform better in a warmer climate next week. They'll need to.

Poyet was very honest about the scale of the task facing his side next week, but he also launched an impressive verbal attack on the AFC for moving the game from Jeonju to Yongin. He argument was that the people who make these decisions "have never played football before."

[LISTEN: K League 2 wrap up]

Jeonbuk Hyundai will be at home again - their real home - for the visit of last season's surprise package Gangwon FC. Jeonbuk are sixth after three rounds having won, lost, and drew a game. Last weekend they were beaten in Munsu. Their opponents, Gangwon FC, have an identical record to Jeonbuk but sit 8th due to goals scored. The match is on Sunday, March 9th at 16:30.